The present invention relates generally to the field of mobile electronic device security, and more particularly to automatic detection of lost or stolen status of a mobile electronic device and automatic responses thereto.
Mobile devices, such as smartphones, table computers, etc., are subject to being lost or stolen. Mobile devices are attractive targets for potential thieves, particularly in crowded locations such as mass transit trains, busses and stations. Some users become unwitting targets for mobile device theft when they appear to be unlikely to resist an attempted theft of their device. Worse, the potential victim's attention is often focused more on the mobile device and less on their surroundings. A thief, after identifying a potential victim, waits for an opportune moment to snatch the mobile device and then quickly escape the vicinity before the victim can respond. Apart from the loss of a mobile device itself, the device often contains personal data that may be leveraged in various ways by an unauthorized user, to the detriment of the owner and/or the owner's personal contacts.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,911,507 (“Gilbert”) discloses as follows: “ . . . systems and methods for mitigating mobile device loss by using historical data describing past locations of a mobile device to determine where the mobile device is expected to be and by automatically taking security measures if the mobile device is in an unexpected location . . . ”